Federation Commander

The thickness was the thing with using the scrap photo-etched brass sheet. It's thinner than any of the sheet stock I've been able to buy easily and, hey, it's free (since it's just excess). I bought the sheet to have some "grilles" and other stuff on-hand for kitbashing. Turns out, I'm using the runners, etc., on it more than anything else, so-far.

The engines on the DNs are their original metal ones (which were made from the plastic ones, so I guess it's all relative).

wedge_hammersteel wrote:dj, what is the actual trade name of the green stuff that you use? I am having difficulty finding it. Thanks.

Wedge -

I totally missed your question. Sorry about that.

I've had mine a couple years now, so I might be forgetting but I think the greenstuff I'm using was packaged and sold by Dream Pod 9. I am positive it's someone else's stuff and they just put it in their packaging and jacked the price (but them doing that did make it available in my FLGS, so I'm not complaining).

If memory serves, it's sometimes sold as Kneadatite brand putty.

The key is to find the blue and yellow component stuff, with separate tubes or packages of each. Some of the cheap stuff (and hardware store "plumber's putty") put them together in one log and the place where they touch cures before it even leaves the factory.

will i think what ever you do is great my friend.

Thanks.

More progress -

Workbench, 7-13-2010:


Plan for revised Fed CVA engines:

After re-reading the description of the CVA in SFB Module J, I needed to rethink my rebuild plan. I was originally going to use the plastic DN engines, unmodified. Since the description specifically says the engines were lowered below the shuttlebay balconies, I want to reflect that. I had already long-since removed the existing curved engine struts from the mini. That's fine as it's one more legacy "old flatbed CVA" feature I felt was "trying too hard" to be in the new DN-based version. I want my struts to look like a minimal-change version of those from the DN.

New engine strut and modified engines, dry-fitted:

I filed a slot across the back of the mini, flush to the balconies, to receive the new strut. Then, I fabricated the strut from a piece of brass sheet stock, cut and trimmed to size, then bent to shape and drilled for pins. I want to go back and add another pin-hole in each engine-mount, but then I can glue this bad boy together.

Romulan RoyalHawk upgrade:

I'm building one of my FireHawks as a RoyalHawk, but wasn't happy with the existing double-engine part (with the Plasma-R box between them). The engines in that part had been re-cast so many times that they're noticeably smaller.

It just doesn't say "I have a huge, scary, plasma-R mount in here" to me.

Since I had the separate engines also supplied and just happen to have greenstuff putty around...

I filed the plasma-launchers off the two engines, then drilled them for pins.

The pin between the two engines will give a greenstuff putty "box" a solid anchor to be built around (and strengthen the engine connection to try and make sure the extra work doesn't get broken off, some day). The front of the box will have a short segment of brass rod in it to represent the plasma launcher. It will look like the launchers on the front of "-Hawk" engines, only larger.

Looking great Will. I really like the new engine strut for the CVA.

Thanks Paul.

I saw your Lyran Pol getting some spotlight on Facebook.

Cool. I need to fix that little guy up and get him shipped to ADB.

T-was my birthday over the weekend, so lots of stuff happened, including some quality bench-time.

I started my kitbash of a Kzinti BFF battle frigate (from Captains Log 31):


I have a bunch of minis queued up in a specimen tray, cleaned and awaiting assembly. My entire Kzinti fleet and a bunch of Romulans. I'll be doing a big "glue 'em up" session in the next few days.

After nearly five years of sitting in a bag, I finally assembled my OGRE Mk V (from Steve Jackson Games' classic OGRE Miniatures):


All the guns and the "eye" tower were reinforced with brass pins. The two halves of the main hull have a massive blob of greenstuff putty over the epoxy joint and then cyanoacrylate over the top of that.

Happy belated birthday Will.

You beat me to a Kzinti BFF! Though I think yours is going to turn out better than min would have (the least reason being the use of a SL2200 mini versus a SL2400 one).

Thanks Paul.

I think it would work with either a SL2200 or SL2400.

I'll be building mine up to match the looks of the modern 2400 FF.

Last year, I traded Mr. Thomas some old PF minis for a quantity of Kzinti weapon booms (the same wedge-shaped booms used in all the modern Kzinti masters - I think this was the CS/CA boom, originally). I'll be using two of those on this mini, instead of the little straight twigs that the SL2200 FF originally came with. They're much, much more durable and also it will keep the FFB from looking out of place with my others.

If there's interest, I might take another crack at the "ridgeback" and extra-engine piece to make it a producible part (it would look a lot like a smaller version of the one for the NCA).

My other SL2200 FF will get assembled with the wedge drone booms too, and slightly modified to represent either a FFH or FFK. Probably an FFK, since the FFH isn't in FedCom and isn't all that distinct (even less than the FFK, IIRC).

BTW - I saw your photos of your Orion MR conversion. Well done!! I have a CR I just stuck the wing back on that I was debating what to do with (I already had all I needed). I now know I'm going to convert it to an MR, using yours as a benchmark. Thanks!!

I'm interested to see how those larger weapon boom arms look with the size of the FF.

I know I'd buy a few BFF attachments to convert some FFs.

Glad I could provide some inspiration for using your CR. Don't go outdoing me and making yours better than mine now.

OGOPTIMUS wrote:I'm interested to see how those larger weapon boom arms look with the size of the FF.

If you have any modern SL2400 FFs, just take a peek at them. When it was remastered to be two-pieces, the spindly little straight booms were replaced with the shorter, thicker, wedge-shaped ones that I'll also be using. That boom seems to have been used on all the re-done Kzintis (at least the ones smaller than DNs).

OGOPTIMUS wrote:Don't go outdoing me and making yours better than mine now.

Highly unlikely. Yours is top-shelf.

My Romulan SaberHawk and JayHawk kitbashes seem to have gone over petty well. I'm now starting new builds of both, this time for a client.

The donor-hull SkyHawk that gave an engine up for my SaberHawk lost its other engine last night:


This process went much, much faster this time, as now I have a small rotary chop/miter-saw (birthday gift from my Father):

It took a few minutes to cobble together a frame to hold the mini in, then seconds to make a nice clean cut (instead of taking forever with a razor-saw, like before).

I always wondered why we dont see all of your fingers in any of your pics.

Power tools almost guarantee a trip to the emergency room, at some point.